David Trubridge to reveal new designs & installation at Milan

David Trubridge returns to Milan design fair for the 13th time, bringing new lighting designs and a thought provoking installation: At Eye Level. Besides the new 2015 launches, the New Zealand designers will also present his Snowflake and Nikau pendant lights, recent winners of the 2015 Red Dot Awards.

At Eye Level Installation

‘At Eye Level’ is an installation that draws attention to the plight of small island communities across the Pacific Ocean. This installation is comprised of the prototype design Ripple and a one-off Boat form, both set against a large banner print of the open sea.

Pacific Island people were once the greatest seafarers on Earth. They found and remembered the positions of nearly every island on the vast Pacific Ocean long before the arrival of Europeans. They did this without any navigating instruments using only their prodigious knowledge and memory of the movement of the heavens. Today, they contribute about the least of all humans to global warming and yet they stand to lose the most as their entire low-lying island homes are inundated by rising sea levels. Affluent developed nations who are the biggest carbon emitters might only lose a small strip of coastline. As part of our journey to Milan we have donated the equivalent of the carbon credits for our flights and freight to causes that assist small communities and islands where this threat is a daily occurrence.

– David Trubridge

Ripple light

The Ripple light takes inspiration from a type of ocean lateen sail once found in the islands of Vanuatu and other parts of the Pacific. The structure of thin bamboo plywood ripples like the sea, gently softening the LED strip light concealed behind. Ripple will be shown for the first time in Euroluce 2015 stand at Salone del Mobile, and will be available later in the year in two triangular sizes (1.1m and 2.3m long), and as a rectangular wall light. It is made in all natural bamboo plywood and can have the inner strips coloured.

The boat form is that of a ‘thofothofo’ from the tiny islands of Aua and Wuvulu off the coast of Papua New Guinea. ‘It appears in our installation like a bleached skeleton washed up on the sand, a remnant of unexpected and gratuitous beauty from a lost culture’. Behind it, an image of a seemingly benign sea conceals a lurking threat originating from a long way over the horizon.

Two of the popular Seed System kitset lights, Snowflake and Nikau, have won 2015 Red Dot awards. Both lights are recent aditions to the lighting collection, and have had additional sizes and finishes added over the years.

A new kitset design (Drop) will be in Milan, alongside other new re-designs for kitset of Roll, Rise and Bounce lights which were previously assembled. The new designs are part of the redesign of the previously assembled Ebb range, that is now being split into individual light designs. The designs, as with all kitsets can be sent in boxes, and assembled by anyone without the need of tools or specialist knowledge.